A conference call is a telephone call in which at least three parties participate. Typically, conference calls can be arranged in either a distributed or a centralized manner. To establish a conference call between three parties in a distributed arrangement, for example, an originating party initiates a first call to a first terminating party. After the first call between the originating party and the first terminating party has been established, one of the parties holds the other on the line, and initiates a second call to a second terminating party. After the second call between the respective party and the second terminating party has been established, the respective party can form a conference call by bridging (connecting) the first and second calls together, thereby joining the originating party, first terminating party and second terminating party to a single conference call.
In lieu of a distributed arrangement, a conference call can be established in a centralized arrangement using a conference call service provided by an operator. In such an arrangement, for example, an originating party can initiate a conference call service request to the operator, identifying one or more parameters of the requested conference call, such as the starting time, estimated length of the conference call and other information relating the call. In response thereto, the operator assigns the calling number of a conferencing server to the requested conference call, the calling number thereafter being distributed to the conference call participants (e.g., originating party, first terminating party, second terminating party, etc.). The conference call can then be formed when the participants individually establish calls to the conferencing server via the calling number, and the conferencing server bridging (connecting) those call together to thereby joining the participants into a single conference call.
As will be appreciated, irrespective of whether a conference call is established in a distributed arrangement or a centralized arrangement, it is sometimes difficult for the participants of a conference call to immediately recognize the currently speaking participant. This is in particular a problem in the case in which there are many participating users in a conference call and the participating users do not know each other very well. And whereas various techniques have been developed for identifying the currently speaking participant during a conference call, it is generally desirable to improve upon existing techniques.